For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin.
For we know - that is, it is a recognized principle. But this manner of speaking is sometimes employed to express, not what is actually and consciously recognized, but what cannot be denied, and will commend itself on reflection to every thoughtful reader.
That the law is spiritual, х pneumatikos (G4152)] - in its nature and demands. Just as a "spiritual man" is a man transformed-animated and led by the Holy Spirit, so the law-which is "holy, just, and good" (Romans 7:12), embodying the demands of Him who is a Spirit-cannot but breathe spirituality in its nature and intent.
But I am carnal, х sarkikos (G4559)]. The true reading-if external evidence alone is to decide-is beyond all doubt sarkinos (G4560). But this properly signifies 'fleshy,' and denotes the material of which a thing is made-which is not at all suitable here-while sarkikos (G4559) - (which hardly occurs in classical Greek, and then, as would appear, only in Plutarch, who is late), judging from the termination, has reference to character. Either, therefore, the two forms were used interchangeably by the New Testament writers or copyists, or, if we must distinguish them, sarkinos (G4560) certainly is an error, and sarkikos (G4559), however ill-attested by external authority, is, without doubt, the true reading. [See Fritzsche's note on the word, and Winer, section 16. 3. g.] The apostle's meaning is made perfectly plain, first, by the opposition of "carnal" to "spiritual" - q.d., 'The law, being spiritual, demands spiritual obedience; but that is just what I, being carnal, am incapable of yielding.' But the meaning is rendered still more evident by the explanatory clause which follows:
Sold under sin - enslaved to it as my tyrant-master. The "I" here is of course not the regenerate man, of whom this is certainly not true; but (as will presently appear) neither is it the unregenerate man-from whose case the apostle has passed away. It remains, then, that it is the sinful principle in the renewed man, as is expressly stated in Romans 7:18.